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Lens ring plate are supposed to install underneath the plate attached to the lens ring, goal is to be able to reinstall quickly your ring on R1/R10 and being sure you are with correct setup. Depending of lens ring, the plate on it is not the same, that's why there is different lens ring plate. If you already have the ring, you can look on the plate, reference of it is engraved and so you'll know which ring plate you need. If you didn't buy it yet, let us know which ring you expect to buy and we'll confirm you ring plate you need ;)

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each ring has a plate to match the size of lens. The plate should not protrude the front of lens to cause bigger nadir footprint.
you should choose a plate based on your lens model. Just tell your reseller.

Nick

Fanotec
We listen. We try harder.

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The lens ring plates will set your lens in NPP position to shoot at 0º and +7.5º pitch.

Most of us shooting at -15º move the lens ring forward by 10-12mm to get a smaller Nadir footprint. So NPP at 17mm for 0 is changed to 7mm. The lens plate uses the small yellow pin of the clamp to fix position.

So the plate won't help you to shoot at -15º because NPP is different from that one at 0º.

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Thank you for the info.. I am currently using R1 Ultimate now custom for a monopod amost identical you what you have shown in your photo. I was hoping shooting of -15º would help to make my nadir foot print smaller.

Currently... I am using NEX-5 with a sigma 8 mm F3.5 , fotodiox lens adapter mounted on R1 with Quick release mount on a monopod. I can get all other setting to work but the -15 and -12.5 and wondering if i need to buy a new plate that would allow me to...

I can not figure out what I did wrong as I can not get a basic stitching correctly... I am using PTGUI 9.0 pro.

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Thank you for the info.. I am currently using R1 Ultimate now custom for a monopod amost identical you what you have shown in your photo. I was hoping shooting of -15º would help to make my nadir foot print smaller.

With a sigma 8mm on Nex, you get 180 deg vertical fov. YOu can't reduce the footprint by tilting downward. The footprint is due to R1/ RD4/ your QR adapter/ or monopod top plate. You can find the culprit by taping a color paper to each part and see if it blocks the view of your lens.
You can however increase the sharpness of the nadir part by using negative tilt at the expense of zenith. Try -2.5 deg or -7.5 deg or -10 deg. Remember lens ring plate (NPP) reading changes with tilt angles. You need to calibrate for each angle.

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.....I can not figure out what I did wrong as I can not get a basic stitching correctly... I am using PTGUI 9.0 pro.....

Hello Binny,

It seems to me that you first should resolve your stitching issue before you try to get a smaller nadir footprint.
It could be that your optimizing workflow is wrong, that you use a forward lens shift (to reduce the footprint) that is too much resulting in parallax (stitching) errors in close by objects, that you can't keep the monopod in a steady leveled position, or perhaps there is another reason.

I suggest that you put a project containing the source images and the PTGui template online for testing.

Wim

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besides Wim's suggestion to place the set of pics for us to test them, if I would be you I would go some steps backwards. I would shoot in NPP at 0° and check my stitch. It would be more easy to use the tripod adapter on a steady tripod. With some of my lenses I could not find NPP for settings up to -15° or even -12.5°.

But the -15° with 10mm - 12mm in front of NPP are used on a 6m pole extension. And because most things are 6 m away you might dare to shoot off NPP. On a monopod you are much closer to the surrounding and should shoot closer to NPP or in NPP position. The use of monopods to shoot panos has its on workflow in learning curve. That's why I personally would in first case perform my stitching and use of NPP and then step forward to the use of monopod. Then one part of the problem is in safe waters and then you know the problems are caused by imperfect use of monopod.

Besides you might have problems with stitching using a monopod is not a plug and play game. As well as a 6m pole.

Success,
Heinz

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It was your post that inspired me and lead me to venture into -15 mm setting. On my -7.5 setting and -2.5 I have no problem getting the one click stitched. However every now and then I got a bad one. The bad one are due to my poor rotation and impatient level as you have suggested. I am a novice and I take the photo because I love doing them to share with friends and family of places I have gone and things i have seen. what I am getting at is I don't have a proper work flow and my Ptgui work flow even worse. I am open for suggest for the work flow and that I need to improve on this part.

Looking forward to hear from you !

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In deed I am not using a 6m pole but a standard Carbon fiber monopod with a bubble level that attached to the monopod. I was hoping to save some cash and advance to a 6m but I wanted to know before if it is worth the investment go with a series 1 or even 2 pole. I will definitely follow your suggestion and start it from scratch again.

Binh

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When you start again from scratch it is best to start on a tripod with the R1 set to zero tilt, find the NPP of the lens yourself with the help of the tutorials of John Houghton (http://www.johnhpanos.com/tuts.htm) and do some practice with PGui (http://www.ptgui.com/examples/).
Shoot 4 images around, this will give enough overlap between the images for a good stitch.
The result will be a pano that covers a full sphere and a footprint that shows most of your tripod, quickmount and the top of the R1.

When you master the shoot on a tripod and you know how to master PTGui then you place the R1 on your monopod.
Btw, skip the quickmount unless you use a Fanotec mini quickmount or another small sized quickmount with a diameter that is the same as the R1.

Start shooting without changing the NPP setting you found on the tripod, skip for now any advanced optimizing with VP correction and practice on the monopod until you are getting decent results.

When shooting on a monopod you have to accept that you will wobble the monopod a bit, as rule of thumb you can get a decent stitch as long as the NPP off set (caused by the wobble) is not more then 1cm for every meter distance to close by objects so try to keep your monopod as steady leveled as possible and keep a distance of at least 1 meter to close by objects.

When you master the monopod you can move the lens a bit forward out of NPP, start with a small off set of just 0.5 cm to see the difference in the results and if all goes well you can move the lens a bit more forward.
I think you have to limit the forward lens shift to 1 or 1.2 cm cm to avoid to much parallax resulting in unacceptable stitching errors.

The footprint of the R1 will be visible but can be covered with a logo, mirrorball or hidden by limiting the view of nadir in the panorama player.

Btw, although PTGui's VP correction is meant for optimizing flat surfaces, like the ground in a nadir patch, and not for optimizing roundshots the use of it can often help a bit to get a better result. The workflow for VP correction is different and needs some practice.
You can read about VP correction in the tutorials.

When you want to set the R1 to a little down tilt to get a sharper image in nadir then the NPP of the lens will change so then you will have to find the NPP again.

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When you start again from scratch it is best to start on a tripod with the R1 set to zero tilt, find the NPP of the lens yourself with the help of the tutorials of John Houghton (http://www.johnhpanos.com/tuts.htm) and do some practice with PGui (http://www.ptgui.com/examples/).
Shoot 4 images around, this will give enough overlap between the images for a good stitch.
The result will be a pano that covers a full sphere and a footprint that shows most of your tripod, quickmount and the top of the R1.

When you master the shoot on a tripod and you know how to master PTGui then you place the R1 on your monopod.
Btw, skip the quickmount unless you use a Fanotec mini quickmount or another small sized quickmount with a diameter that is the same as the R1.

I do own a quick mount from Fanotec and it work great .

Start shooting without changing the NPP setting you found on the tripod, skip for now any advanced optimizing with VP correction and practice on the monopod until you are getting decent results.
When shooting on a monopod you have to accept that you will wobble the monopod a bit, as rule of thumb you can get a decent stitch as long as the NPP off set (caused by the wobble) is not more then 1cm for every meter distance to close by objects so try to keep your monopod as steady leveled as possible and keep a distance of at least 1 meter to close by objects.
This is a mistake that I made. shooting ina dark room or hallway to test the sitching.

When you master the monopod you can move the lens a bit forward out of NPP, start with a small off set of just 0.5 cm to see the difference in the results and if all goes well you can move the lens a bit more forward.
I think you have to limit the forward lens shift to 1 or 1.2 cm cm to avoid to much parallax resulting in unacceptable stitching errors.

The footprint of the R1 will be visible but can be covered with a logo, mirrorball or hidden by limiting the view of nadir in the panorama player.

Btw, although PTGui's VP correction is meant for optimizing flat surfaces, like the ground in a nadir patch, and not for optimizing roundshots the use of it can often help a bit to get a better result. The workflow for VP correction is different and needs some practice.
You can read about VP correction in the tutorials.

When you want to set the R1 to a little down tilt to get a sharper image in nadir then the NPP of the lens will change so then you will have to find the NPP again.

Success,
Wim

Thank you so much for the advise.. it will be my project for this week.

Binny

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I do not understand all this talk about tilting down in order to reduce the Nadir when shooting on a monopod.

If you tilt up 5 degrees you do not need a Zenith shot. The footprint is only about 25 degrees and can so very easily be covered up by a hand held Nadir patch shot. 25 degrees with the camera at about 5.5 ft up translates into a circle about 1.5 feet on the ground. Very easy to cover with a hand held patch shot.

If you tilt down and want to display the full sphere (and your Photoshop skills are as bad as mine are), you will need a Zenith shot and a Nadir shot.

If the goal is to improve the quality of the Nadir, taking a hand held Nadir patch shot will give you a much sharper Nadir image than any amount of downward tilt AND you will not need yet another shot for the Zenith.

For shooting high pole panos where the Zenith is just a bunch of clouds or a clear sky, i can see where making the Nadir smaller with a downward tilt is an advantage. Cloning the sky in order to close the Zenith hole is quite easy to do.

For shooting a 5 or 6 foot monopod, I see no benefit of tilting down. I see only added work. Tilt up 5 degrees, shoot 4 around and cover the Nadir hole with your logo or a hand held Nadir patch shot (which stitches in quite easily with PTGui's viewpoint correction). Your panorama comes out of the stitcher done. The only Photoshop work needed is color correction and such. If you use Smartblend to stitch the bottom half and PTGui's stitcher for the top half, you will need Photoshop to combine the two images.

As to calibration: I put my R1 at the tilt I wanted, mounted it on a rotator and used a tripod. Once I had the setting I wanted, I removed the rotator and put the R1 directly onto the to of the monopod. You still need to go through the calibration steps when shooting on a monopod. You need to calibrate at each tilt angle since "the point" moves with each new tilt adjustment.

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BTW: Something has changed with the editor here on the forum. You cannot put embedded line feeds or leading spaces in order to separate paragraphs. All the text now just runs together. Maybe my memory is failing but I seem to remember being able to format messages just a bit better in order to make them more readable.